 1932 - 2018 (86 years) Submit Photo / Document
Has 10 ancestors and one descendant in this family tree.
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| Name |
David Woolley Beckstead |
| Birth |
6 May 1932 |
Whitney, Franklin, Idaho, United States  |
| Gender |
Male |
| Initiatory (LDS) |
16 Jun 1952 |
LOGAN |
| FamilySearch ID |
LF4X-4J9 |
| Death |
10 Jun 2018 |
Whitney, Franklin, Idaho, United States |
| Burial |
16 Jun 2018 |
Whitney Cemetery, Franklin, Idaho, United States |
| Headstones |
 Submit Headstone Photo |
| Person ID |
I50517 |
mytree |
| Last Modified |
25 Feb 2024 |
| Father |
Lloyd Neeley Beckstead, b. 16 Sep 1897, Whitney, Franklin, Idaho, United States d. 2 Aug 1974, Preston, Franklin, Idaho, United States (Age 76 years) |
| Mother |
Adrienne Woolley, b. 6 Feb 1897, Preston, Franklin, Idaho, United States d. 18 Mar 1982, Ogden, Weber, Utah, United States (Age 85 years) |
| Marriage |
25 Sep 1918 |
Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, United States |
| Family ID |
F18796 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Children |
| | 1. John Beckstead, b. 14 Nov 1963, Preston, Franklin, Idaho, United States bur. Apr 2003, Whitney, Franklin, Idaho, United States (Age ~ 39 years) |
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| Family ID |
F18801 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Last Modified |
21 Apr 2024 |
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| Notes |
- DAVID WOOLLEY BECKSTEAD
(1932-2018)
David Woolley Beckstead was the fourth of five children born to Lloyd Ne e ley Beckstead and Adrienne Woolley. He was born May 6, 1932 on the fami l y farm just south of Preston, Idaho. He had an older sister, Shirley; t w o older brothers, Lloyd Jr. and Spencer; and a younger brother, Tony .
His parents were solid members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-d a y Saints. They lived in hard times. Hard work was the name of the gam e i n building up the family farm during the depression. There were lot s of c hores to do. One of the main crops at that time was sugar beets. D avid le arned to hoe fields of sugar beets by hand, a very difficult task . His da d tried to get the latest improvements in farm machinery as the y were mad e available.
In his young years, rats were a very bad problem. They were very prolifi c . Lloyd paid his son, David, a nickel for each rat he trapped. It beca m e quite a project for David to rid the farm of the pestilence. Here a r e a few quotes from letters that David wrote about his youth himself:
“My letter tonight will be directed to grandchildren about the size of P r eston and Johnny (9 years). I am going to tell you about one of the exc it ing times I had as a boy with their great grandfather, Lloyd N. Beckst ead .
“On a fall day in November when I was 8 or 9 years old, Grandpa Lloyd de c ided to go up the canyon to get a hay derrick to use for putting up ha y t he next summer. A derrick required about four small pine trees and on e es pecially long red pine tree for the top pole which swings over the h ay st ack with the fork full of hay.
“We harnessed old Duke (a blue pigeon-toed horse) and Dick (a brown ol d h orse) and hooked them on the wagon which had the hay tack taken off t he d ay before. Our destination was a sawmill up Franklin Basin about 2 0 mile s up Cub River Canyon. We had some old quilts and our food that gr andma A drienne put in a big box which we sat on. Our supplies were to la st us ov ernight until we would get home the next day.
“The weather that day was cloudy, and at that time of the year most anyt h ing can happen. We had lots of clothes on so we would stay warm. The ov er cast sky seemed to be especially thick as we looked up towards the hil ls .
“Old Duke and Dick jogged along on a trot and in about an hour and a ha l f we were down the Power House hill where Longs live. By the time we pa ss ed Community Camp ground, it was raining a fine drizzle. Grandpa too k a b lanket out of the big wooden box and put it over our heads so we wo uldn’ t get soaked. The next stop was at Willow Flat. The fall leaves ha d falle n and the road was muddy. A combination of leaves and mud made th e wheel s gum up and the horses could hardly pull the wagon. At Willow Fl at we we re three fourths of the way to the sawmill, and we cleaned the w heels of f so we could keep going up Hillyard Canyon. It was about four o ’clock i n the afternoon and it would be dark by 5:30 p.m., and we had fi ve mile s to go up this steep winding canyon. By now we were very wet an d cold; s o when two deer jumped across the road, the horses hardly notic ed it. W e just watched them bound through the cold looking aspen trees . Where th e road was especially steep, grandpa would slap old Duke wit h the lines s o he would walk a little faster.
“We finally reached the top of Hillyard and were at the north end of t h e basin. It was about a mile to the sawmill and darkness was setting i n o n some wet, cold, weary travelers. A light from the old bunkhouse soo n ap peared through the trees and our spirits were really cheered.
“Grandpa took me to the little bunkhouse where the sawmill man had a ni c e big warm fire and told us we could stay there all night. It sure fel t g ood in that little one room building, and I got warm while grandpa un harn essed the tired horses. After supper, which I remember was a quart o f pea ches and homemade butter and bread, we were glad to bed down on a n ice wa rm floor.
“That night we were warmed up good, but by morning the wood fire burne d o ut and it got quite cold. When we looked out in the morning there wa s abo ut two to three inches of snow and the sky was clear.
“We hooked up the team and drove the wagon over to the mill yard where t h e sawmill man helped load the logs up a ramp, with his team, onto our w ag on. After the logs were chained on we said goodbye and headed out of t h e basin. We put the brakes on the wagon as we headed back down Hillyar d a nd the horses seemed happy to move along at a brisk pace down the roa d. T he day was beautiful and we had a fun time eating some of grandma’ s hone y candy we had saved for the trip home. (Such a trip now would onl y tak e a couple of hours.)
“Maybe next summer I will take you on that trip with my new shire tea m . I know Preston can tell us the difference between Shires, Clydes, Bel gi ans, and Percherons.”
“Now I will tell you about my first horse. This story goes back to the y e ar we built our house in 1939. I had this old brown skinny horse sever a l years before this time. She first belonged to my father’s brother, Un cl e Oral. When Uncle Oral came home from his South African mission wit h a n Aristocratic young English bride by the name of Norah, my grandfath er A masa practically disinherited him. Uncle Oral owned this old horse , and h e loved her very much. At this time he left the farm and went t o New Yor k to work on a dairy. He left the old mare named Fox for me t o care for.
“When I was five I learned to get on her when she would put her head do w n to eat. Then I would jump on her neck and wait for her to raise her h ea d and then slide back on her skinny back.
“Getting back to the year 1939 which I remember because we were buildi n g the house and my job was to herd the cows on the Bamburger Railroad r ig ht-of-way. The trains came on schedule at 7 a.m., 1 p.m., and 6:30 p.m . T hese were the regular, fast passenger schedules which traveled at abo ut 2 5 miles per hour enroute to Logan. There were also a couple of slo w freig ht schedules.
“This job of herding cows took place between schedules, and it kept me p r etty busy keeping the cows off at the time the electric, one-passenge r un it came up or down the track. You could look down the track approxim atel y ten miles and see the sparks above the car when it was coming.
“Sometimes my cows would get out and be along the railroad at the time t h e train came rattling up or down the track. It would have to slow dow n t o avoid hitting them and this made the old conductor pretty mad. It u se d to really scare me when I was hurrying to get the cows off, and I wo ul d look up and it was too late to be off in time. Then old Mr. Fryar, w h o was the conductor, would stop the train and tell me he was going to c ho p off my ears if those cows got in his way anymore. This used to reall y f righten me, and I was glad when our pasture at home got good enough t o fu rnish feed for our few cows by the first of June. Then the cow herdi ng go t better until next spring rolled around. At this time, I vowed t o mysel f that I would buy enough pasture so that Old Fox and I wouldn’ t have t o herd cows anymore. Fox was my favorite skinny brown horse.”
As you can see, David was a great story teller. He had a story about eve r yone, and he knew just about everyone in the county.
David was a bright boy and skipped a grade in school making him a year y o unger than everyone else who graduated from high school. He went to th e U niversity of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho. He married Pauline Westerberg wh o al so went to college in Moscow. He knew her in high school in Preston . Fo r their honeymoon, they took a drive to the Utah National Parks—Bryc e, Zi ons, etc. David went through Veterinarian school at the Universit y of Was hington, and then worked as a vet in Malad, Idaho for a year o r two befor e moving into his parent’s home (1498 S 800 E) to farm. He bo ught some la nd from his father and worked hard. As the uncles got older , David bough t their land. Over time he accumulated all the land along B eckstead Lan e that belonged to his ancestors, the pastures, he vowed h e would try t o get for his cattle and much more. He eventually had abou t 6,000 acres a nd 300 cattle.
David and Pauline had eight children, four boys and four girls—Kristy, K a thy, David (Brad), Kaye (Pud), Jed, Shirley, John, and Alan (Fred). Th e y taught their kids how to work hard and that stayed with them througho u t their lives making them very prosperous, industrious people. Paulin e ma tched her husband as a hard worker and was an incredibly giving an d sacri ficing person. She had a bright, cheery, talkative personality an d she su pported David in all his farming efforts.
David had constant goals for improvements to the ranch. He obtained th e l atest farm machinery, increased his sprinkler wheel lines, improved h is i rrigation, put in steel gates, nicer fences, etc. It was a family af fair . A love of the farm stayed with his kids. Some of his grandchildre n work ed on the farm in the summers (Kathy and Brad’s sons). Their paren ts kne w the value it would be to them.
David encouraged and helped pay for his children to go to college. Sev e n of his children had bachelor degrees. David B. became a family docto r i n Preston and Jed received an MBA. David and Pauline encouraged growi ng e xperiences; for instance, David B. went to Europe with the BYU Ballr oom D ance Team; they sent Pud on a BYU tour of Europe; they helped Fre d go t o Jerusalem with a study group. They wanted their kids to broade n their h orizons. All there children also took piano lessons.
However, for himself, David never wanted to leave the farm. It was foo d a nd drink to him. Hard work was his entertainment. He did go to othe r stat es to see his children graduate from college and get graduate degr ees, o r see his posterity marry. He also went to California to visit Kat hy. Bu t his favorite place was the farm. He was very proud to be the fou rth gen eration living on his road, Beckstead Lane, 800 East, Preston, Id aho.
David had many, many friends. He would help them dehorn cattle or tend e d to their sick cattle. His friends in turn helped him when he needed i t . He enjoyed stopping to visit his pals as he went about his everyday w or k.
As the kids grew up and moved away, he had a lot more work without all t h e help. For years he hired two or three Mexicans to come for six month s o ut of the year to help him farm—Robbie, Pedro, and Juan .
David told of a special spiritual experience that happened to him when h i s son, Fred (Alan), was in a coma in Ogden hospital after a severe ca r ac cident. On a trip through Sardine Canyon to visit Fred at the hospit al, D avid saw an angel surrounded by light, standing in the air near th e top o f a hill. The angel spoke words of comfort to David explaining th at Fre d would recover. And Fred did get well, went on a mission, and wa s seale d in the temple to a lovely girl. Every time David drove throug h that sam e canyon, he recalled the incident.
David had a strong testimony of the gospel, and a firm devotion to his a n cestors that crossed the plains as pioneers and settled the land tha t h e loved so much. He and Pauline established a strong family who did m uc h to help build up the kingdom of God in the latter days. David and Pa uli ne gave future generations an invaluable foundation.
By Alexis Champneys Beckstead, David's daughter-in-law.
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Has 10 ancestors and one descendant in this family tree.
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